


Long Roads Lead to the Country

by GalaxyGazing



Series: Long Roads Lead to the Country [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Comfort, Hand Jobs, M/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:08:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25238983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyGazing/pseuds/GalaxyGazing
Summary: They succeeded. So now, finally, they can rest.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric/Edward Elric
Series: Long Roads Lead to the Country [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2166675
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	Long Roads Lead to the Country

The Resembool countryside is an expanse of green. It chases into the distance to meet an endless sky.

The marigolds are wild in the summer, winds are tepid in the fall. In all directions there is verdure and peace. And because of all the joy and pain and _memory_ the place held it seemed only fitting to return to it now, after everything.

The land where their house once stood no longer feels like theirs, nor do they want it back. But among all the humble homes that dotted the hills, one more is welcomed ten minutes further down the road.

They would need a place to rest and heal; shelter that wasn’t imposing on Pinako. But even more importantly, they would need a place to return to now and then. A place to convene after traveling the East and the West. A place to call home.

It takes longer to build without the use of alchemy but, despite one of them still being able to use it, neither wanted their new journey to begin on the same foundation of the last.

And now it is finished, tucked safely into the hillside. Under no one’s watch but starlight, concealing no one’s business but their own.

“It’s okay,” Ed tells him.

The words float on a piece of a whisper, all air and hardly any sound. But it is the way they are spoken that shakes Al, igniting a desperate gratitude. They are not uttered forgivingly, but _assuringly_.

“It’s okay.”

After facing the most impossible fears the world had to offer, Alphonse Elric finds that he is left with only one: the thought that his brother was still willing to give him anything, everything, at the expense of his own wellbeing.

Nothing would ever stop Ed from putting Al first. Ed had given his arm for him, his alchemy, and tried on several occasions to give his life, so to give him _this_ would be all too effortless. Perhaps because he felt like Al was owed. Or worse, to apologize.

But Al didn’t want any of this if Ed didn’t desire it just as deeply. That is what had made him freeze, kept him from pressing any closer as they lay together, dressed for bed.

He had initiated things without a thought because it felt like the most natural thing in the world. And he paused when he considered Ed may not feel the same. They couldn’t afford to become distant _now_. If it turned out that his love strained their bond more than the hatred of all their foes, Al would crumple under the weight of that.

But Ed just nods against his forehead, golden eyes holding nothing but understanding, and _comfort_ , and the same sort of need that was coiling in Al’s stomach.

“C’mere.”

He finishes what Al had begun, cupping the back of his neck and bringing them together. The space between their lips is closed and Al suddenly feels safe enough to break. He feels wanted enough to indulge. But more than that, he _feels_.

After years of doubt colliding with hope, wondering if getting his body back was even possible, now here he is. Here they both are. The sensation of touch never goes unnoticed, never underappreciated since he returned.

It was deliciously vivid, it never dulled entirely back to normal, and it probably never would.

The drag of Ed’s rough hand up under Al’s nightshirt is bright enough to spark, Al thinks. It’s the right hand, the previously metal hand, and Al splinters at that realization. He _moves_ and Ed lets him.

Al learns just how welcome he is when he fumbles to push Ed’s boxers down. The weight of him laying on his side catches the fabric and so Ed gently lifts his hips from the bed to allow him. They undress to nothing, to revel in every inch of skin that they fought so hard to take back from God himself.

Ed’s movements are slow and deliberate while Al suddenly feels incapable of grace, but Ed just guides his hand as Al takes both of them in his grasp. The smell of Ed’s clean skin is intoxicating, every breath fills Al’s lungs with scent.

They lived their lives by tying theirs to the other. Wherever one went, the other followed. And the one time Al strayed somewhere Ed _couldn’t_ follow, well...he’d given half his body to bring them together again.

So in a much softer, and gentler, and beautiful way—Ed gives him his whole body this time.

“Alphonse,” Ed says. The word is hitched, a combined effort of pleading and encouragement, to let him know. That’s all it takes for Al to follow.

It is so much at once, so white hot and lightning bright. After five touch-starved years of feeling nothing and then suddenly feeling _everything_ , it is indescribably overwhelming.

And so, they let themselves be overwhelmed. They have earned that much, at least.

Al gasps a quiet sob, Ed is already embracing him, and they entwine. They're both shaking, holding each other for all the times that they couldn't, for all the times that they would now, hard enough for it to ache.

And Al is so grateful that it _does_.

It finally does.

\--

The End


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